Don't Just Check the Box

This post is not about the skills suggested by your competency vendor who built their competencies database in 1983. In their tired and out of date view, Business Acumen is defined as things such “Understanding the Business,” “Financial Literacy/Quantitative Acumen,” and “Focusing on Customers.”

While many CEOs, CFOs, and HR professionals and leaders may think this is great and “check off” a big box on their “competency to-do list” with a bunch of online videos, these words are meaningless and out of context today and beyond. Over the past year, we have been working with leaders of large global companies through our business simulations and virtual learning journeys to re-define their approach to talent development in several areas including Business Acumen.

I am pleased to share some of the deep insights we have gathered and what the real Business Acumen Skills CEOs and CFOs want everyone in their organizations to know from a practical… and more importantly… applicable way that impacts the ability to compete and achieve business results.

First, we will start with the CEO and then move to the CFO.

Just when we think the “next normal” is in sight, it shifts by another 3 months. Or was that 6 months? We all have complex questions and simple questions like, when will we go back to the office?

“Oh, in 3 months…”

“Definitely in 6 months, after the summer.”

“Most likely January 2022.”

“Back to the office, what office?”

The current and near-term business environment is as volatile as it has ever been. It certainly is competing with the crash of 1929 and the depression of the 1930s. And, because of this and the fear of what could happen next, organizations are desperate to have employees with strong Business Acumen skills and competencies. Leaders at all levels of any business need their employees to be able to understand strategy, set strategy, execute strategy through operational decisions, lead people to execute the right strategies, and to understand and drive financial performance and the metrics that matter.

It is still hard for me to believe that my beloved Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl just 3 short years ago. It seems like a distant memory for so many reasons…

As plans are now underway for the 2021 NFL season, the Philadelphia Eagles organization is in a state of total chaos and they are about to trade their franchise quarterback, who not coincidently isn’t on speaking terms with the key members of his Front Office including the General Manager who accomplished the near impossible to bring him to the team through trades and other maneuvers.

One of the most interesting things about providing insights into all things Business Acumen to more than 7,200 followers is the requests for insights into “hot topics.” After a bunch of requests to explain what is really going on with GameStop and the stock market, I figured it was time. Last week during the height of the insanity it was hard to get a deep understanding. Today, after GameStop dropped back to under $100 a share, it’s time to examine and learn about this from a Business Acumen perspective.

If you’ve been through one of our Business Acumen programs you will recall that we use stock price as one of the primary metrics of assessment. In the Business Simulation portion of the program, you made decisions that (hopefully) created shareholder value through increased revenues, profit, and free cash flow.

Like most “hot” topics that become drivers of change to businesses, the “Acceleration of the transformation to digital,” which has become mainstream for most corporate functions, is now (finally) dramatically impacting the world of Talent Development. And it’s about time!